SQL Server 2016 CTP2

If you haven’t been on a month-long holiday to a secluded island with no access to phone, email, or computer (and if you did, I truly envy you), then you must have heard that we announced SQL Server 2016 recently! And, now we’ve released a public beta (or preview) “SQL Server 2016 CTP2” last week.

Download It Now!
This is a public preview, so it is not restricted to a few selected customers. It is available to all. Thousands have downloaded SQL Server 2016 CTP2 and are exploring the new features in it. You can download it now, if you haven’t already done so, from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-sql-server-2016.

Read About It!
CTP2 documentation is published on MSDN here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd631853(v=sql.10).aspx.

See It In Action Now!
TechNet Virtual Labs are here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/bb467605.aspx. These are self-paced guided labs that can help you ramp up quickly on the new technologies and features in SQL Server 2016 CTP2.

Want to Deploy Your Own Azure SQL VM with SQL Server 2016 CTP2?
Get it here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/partners/microsoft/sqlserver2016ctp2evaluationwindowsserver2012r2/. Alternatively, go to the Azure Portal, and select SQL Server 2016 CTP2 from the gallery. Hundreds of SQL Server 2016 CTP2 VMs are deployed in Azure.

Have A Question?
Post your questions on one of the SQL Server Forums.

Ready For More Serious Stuff?
Have an interesting new project, or want to validate SQL Server 2016 for your applications? We invite you to work closely with the SQLCAT team and the SQL Server engineering team. Sign up here: https://aka.ms/sqlvnext, if you would like to join our TAP (Technology Adoption Program) for SQL Server 2016. (When you click on this link, you will find no mention of SQL Server on that page. You may be confused or feel tricked , but bear with us and continue further, you will eventually submit your request for SQL Server 2016 TAP).

Ready For Even More Serious Stuff?
We have a state-of-the-art lab with modern hardware and storage dedicated just for you. Bring in your workload and test harness and test, learn and work with us alongside us. Explore the benefits of spending a week (or more, if you want and need) working alongside SQLCAT team and SQL Server engineering team on your application and on your data, design and tune your application for SQL Server 2016. Just let us know, and we will schedule it.

Ready For Production?
Ready for even more serious stuff? One of the most exciting part of our job is to take bleeding edge applications on bleeding edge technology and enable customers to deploy in production to dramatically reduce the time to value. CTP2 is ready for production deployment for several features, and we are actively working with several TAP customers to take their applications to production with CTP2. You need to be in the TAP program to exploit the extreme advantages of this accelerated adoption.

We Want To Hear From You
We would like to hear your feedback. What is working well for you and what is not?  Submit feedback through https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/Feedback/. You can tweet us at @MSSQLCAT.

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 19, 2015
  Any word on when SSDT-BI will be released for the 2016 CTP2 so we can try out SSAS Tabular changes? Thanks!

• Anonymous
  June 25, 2015
  Is there a forum specifically for 2016 CTP2 ?